Hey now girl, what's the matter with me?
We're on a back road, driving to sea
Straight as a razor, kicking the dust
Digging through ditches and falling to rust
Taking me far, far as a rental car can go
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
Yea yea yea yea yea yea

Hey now girl, at the end of the road
Down where the reaper is walking alone
Singing a death knell, clapping along
At the end of the night there's a road we'll be on
Taking me far, far as a rental car can go
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
Yea yea yea yea yea yea

Hey now girl, what's the matter with me?
We're on a back road, driving to sea
Straight as a razor, kicking up dust
Digging through ditches and falling to rust
Taking me far, far as a rental car can go
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
Yea yea yea yea yea yea

La la la la la la music
La la la la la la music

Hey now girl, at the end of the road
Down where the reaper is walking alone
Singing a death knell, clapping along
At the end of the night there's a road we'll be on
Taking me far, far as a rental car can go
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
Yea yea yea yea yea yea

"Rental Car" is a multi-sectioned rock tune that appears on Guero. It is led by a buzzing guitar riff, the "yea yea yea" chorus, and that "la la la" section in the middle. The song was left over from Midnite Vultures days, as Justin Meldal-Johnsen and Roger Manning, Jr. appear on it (unlike most other songs on Guero). The music has a great rock and roll momentum to it.

Beck worked on the song a lot, saying in one interview that he kept re-writing it, trying different things with the chords, new melodies, trying to get it right. He even added that he probably didn't quite get what he was imagining, but instead of giving up and moving on to another song, he took it as a challenge to make it work.

"Rental Car" seems to me a slightly religious metaphor, about how this life is just a rental. The road will end, and this life is not your own. The second verse places a reaper at the end (similar to the scarecrow elsewhere on the album?), waiting joyfully for your arrival.

That said, I could be reading a bit into it all, and it may just be a simple tale of hitting the end of the road, which metaphorically could refer to just about anything.

The earliest versions of "Rental Car" on stage were at some pre-Guero warm-up gigs. The bass and guitar intro is solid, and all in all, the rock band vibe could really be exciting. Though really, the song is not terribly different from the album. Petra Haden's "la la la" part is taped in. Beck also played that the song at a few media appearances supporting Guero's release.

2005-2007 GUERO/INFO TOURS

Beck played around 55 shows in 2005 behind Guero, and played "Rental Car" at roughly half of them.

He then took 6 months off, to finish The Information, and returned to play 61 more shows in 2006. They more or less dropped "Rental Car" from this point, only playing it 10 times.

Finally, they did play the song 3 final times on the short 2007 tour of Japan.

The lyrics in the liner notes say "We're on a back road / Something to see," but I hear a "driving" in there.

The middle "la la la" section is sung by Petra Haden. It's not a sample, but she came into sing. Here's Beck's story: "We had a sample of these Austrian women yodelling and we couldn't find who owned it, or who it was from. I mean, it just didn't exist, so I had a friend come in and sing it. She did her best."